Hello, I am new here but I have been using Foobar2000 for some time now. One of the things that has frustrated me in the past is the lack of a "remove from library" option, and you'll see why in a moment.

My issue that I come to you with today is that my library is sorted using the default in Edit->Sort... but it really messes up my collection. Because I am an audiophile (like a lot of Foobar users), I encode many of my songs in both FLAC and a high-quality lossy format, Ogg Vorbis, for use with my phone. However, the default sort destroys the group by artist/date/album/codec.

My question for you today: is there a sorting filter for codec, and how would I make this:

The first thought off the top of my head after seeing your "remove from library" comment is that if you have duplicates of all your files and never listen to the vorbis duplicates in foobar, you should open Preferences > Shell Integration and add *.OGG to the Exclude file types box.

Secondly, there are various ways to make your albums display the way you wish, with each affecting the overall display of the playlist. For instance, the following three strings will yield different results.

Other title formatting values you can substitute or integrate into those strings are %path_sort%, %path% or %filename_ext% among others. My advice is to experiment until you obtain exactly what you want. Bear in mind that the structure of your music collection can help (or hinder ) you and can be used to your advantage. The title formatting reference can be found here.

The first thought off the top of my head after seeing your "remove from library" comment is that if you have duplicates of all your files and never listen to the vorbis duplicates in foobar, you should open Preferences > Shell Integration and add *.OGG to the Exclude file types box.

Alternatively, to exclude on a per-file basis, set unwanted files as hidden in Windows Explorer.

Thanks for your replies.I think I might have to go with excluding OGG files. Though, if I download some music that is not a duplicate that's in that format, I'll have to think of something else.

Hiding the files in Explorer is a very inefficient and inelegant solution, especially since I often drag-n-drop my "Lossy" folder to my Android's SD card to update my music.

If there was another player that was as powerful as Foobar and, perhaps most importantly, played all the same files that it does, then I'd switch to it, as 1: I don't use Playlists except for a Recently Added one (and even that was a pain to set up) and 2: you can actually manage your library. (And please don't point me to Winamp, I hate its interface).

You can't add a folder non-recursively in Foobar's Library, can you? Because then I could add each folder in my library individually. Also inefficient, but if that's what I have to do so be it.

1) You don't "have to" exclude file types. It shouldn't be necessary to obtain the view that you want.

2) You did apply the strings I gave you at Preferences > Shell Integration in the Sort incoming files by box? (I personally use the last/third string although I use %album artist% in place of %artist%). If those strings aren't satisfactory, then elaborate further on how you want your albums displayed. I or someone will likely help you.

3) Foobar adds files from the specified folder and any sub-folders.

4) If you're not one to build playlists, then you'll probably find the Album List feature of foobar more to your liking. It's settings are located at Preferences > Media Library > Album List. Adding something along the lines of the following would probably work for you. Name it whatever you wish.

Well to get it to display as close to the typical library view of other players I simply created an Autoplaylist from the All Music Album List. I just want it to be a clean view with the sort by Album Artist, and really I don't ever play the Ogg files in Foobar so maybe excluding them would be a good idea. Using the default sort worked until I figured out 32GB wasn't enough to store all my music + videos + installed apps on my phone and started using duplicates.

When you referred to Album List did you mean use it instead of a playlist view? I like the grouping that you can do with playlists, but the All Music Autoplaylist is basically the Album List in playlist format.

I apologize if I seem a little dense or stubborn or frustrated or whatever, I just want it to work as-is but sadly that's not happening. If iTunes could play FLAC and Ogg Vorbis files I'd just use it (stupid proprietary codecs...)

Huh, you can't edit posts? That seems odd...anyway, I'm getting used to the sorting methods, so I think I'll be okay. I'll just experiment until I'm happy with it. I think that maybe I'll even eventually accept that Foobar is just different from other players, and as a result you have to do things differently (referring to the seemingly odd library management of course).Thank you again for your replies!